Las Cruces police investigate apparent murder-suicide

By James Staley

Posted:
04/07/2014 03:54:24 PM MDT

A man reacts after a Las Cruces police officer tells him they were investigating an apparent murder-suicide at the Sexton Apartments in the 1800 block of Sexton St. on Monday. (Carlos Javier Sanchez - Sun-News)

LAS CRUCES >> A pregnant woman and man are dead after an apparent murder-suicide early Monday afternoon at a Las Cruces apartment building.

Investigators had not released the names of the deceased as of Monday evening. Las Cruces Police Department spokesman Dan Trujillo said authorities were still notifying family members.

Responding to a call about 12:20 p.m., police found a 30-year-old woman and 32-year-old man, both with gunshot wounds, inside their apartment in the 1800 block of Sexton Street, according to a news release.

Friends and neighbors have identified them as Bridgette Dominguez and Jesus Rojas.

She was breathing when first responders arrived, according to scanner traffic, and was treated. Dominguez later died at

Authorities pronounced Rojas dead at the scene. Police said his wound appeared to be self-inflicted.

A toddler was in the apartment during the shooting, but he was not injured, police said.

Early Monday evening, police still had an area surrounding the Sexton Apartments blocked with crime scene tape. The small complex is south of Madrid Avenue, near Apodaca Park.

Police are still to determine what led to the shooting, the news release states. Witnesses heard three shots, per scanner traffic.

The couple's address did not show up in LCPD's recent blotter report.

Advertisement

Last year, Doña Ana County sheriff's deputies charged Rojas for battery against a household member, but that charged was later dismissed in Magistrate Court.

The victim in that alleged incident is not named in the DASO report.

This is the city's second murder-suicide since last July, but such incidents are rare. Before last summer, LCPD had not investigated a murder-suicide in at least seven years, Trujillo said.

In that incident, 70-year-old Rick McIntyre forced himself into the truck of his sister-in-law, Lisa Cash, 59, at gunpoint. He then made her drive to a neighborhood about three miles away, shot her, then turned the gun on himself, police said. He was being investigated for abusing his wife, and had been set to face grand jury the next day.
James Staley can be reached at 575-541-5476